General Mandarin Courses (Reading & Writing Skills) - Overview

These courses are designed for non-Chinese speaking adults who want to be able to speak, understand, read, and write Mandarin. They are available either as a complement to our general conversational courses (see ‘Listening & Speaking Skills’ section) or as a stand-alone course.

The aim of these courses is to present the Chinese language as it is: a world of signs with their origin and the logic of their composition, represented by those most frequently used. Through a variety of routes (etymology, semantics, linguistics, graphics, and culture), these courses will not only teach you how to read and write the language, but very importantly, will also enable you to embrace Chinese culture and traditions, and help you to better appreciate the Chinese people’s way of thinking.

There is much controversy as to whether or not a non-Chinese speaker should start studying Chinese characters at the same time as learning how to speak. At HKIL, our experience shows that if serious character study is included from the beginner level, when not in an intensive course structure, it will considerably slow your overall progress in the spoken language. This is why we have designed separate programmes for ‘Listening & Speaking Skills’ and for ‘Reading & Writing Skills’.

• If you are a complete beginner, we recommend that you postpone serious character study until you are reasonably proficient in the spoken language, that is to say until you reach the end of the Elementary Level.

• If you are at Intermediate Level and wish to seriously pursue your learning, we recommend that you start to also study how to read and write as this will help you to better understand the nature of the Chinese language and therefore progress further. To this end, we recommend that you join our ‘Reading & Writing’ course as an additional component to your Intermediate ‘Listening & Speaking Skills’ core course.

• If you are really proficient in the spoken language, and would like to focus mainly on the study of the characters, then we recommend that you join our ‘Reading & Writing’ course as a stand-alone course.

* Courses are arranged in modules of 40 lessons, and you may register for half or full modules.

Our courses make use of practical, easy to follow, and most importantly, proven textbooks that offer a step-by-step approach to written Mandarin. Each new chapter incorporates a short, clear commentary on the cultural and historical background of China to help you to better understand what the Chinese would say in a given situation, as well as why and how.

In addition to your coursebook, you will receive a wealth of supplementary materials to make your learning experience more varied and interesting. The medium used during the lessons is Mandarin, supplemented whenever necessary with English or French for explanations and instructions.